Adjacent Words

Cathay definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a communist nation that covers a vast territory in eastern Asia; the most populous country in the world [syn: China, People's Republic of China, mainland China, Communist China, Red China, PRC, Cathay]

Merriam Webster's

geographical name china — an old name

Britannica Concise

Former name for China, especially N China. The word is derived from Khitay, the name of a seminomadic people who dominated N China in the 10th-12th cent. By the time of Genghis Khan, the Mongols had begun referring to N China as Kitai (still the Russian word for China). The name may have been introduced to Europe by returning Franciscan friars c.1254, but it was M. Polo's Travels 50 years later that put Cathay's image before the European public.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. archaic or poet. the country China. Etymology: med.L Cataya

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Cathay Ca*thay", n. China; -- an old name for the Celestial Empire, said have been introduced by Marco Polo and to be a corruption of the Tartar name for North China (Khitai, the country of the Khitans.) Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay. --Tennyson.